南方财经全媒体记者 杨雨莱 广州报道
2023 is the "darkest moment" for all PC manufacturers. Global PC sales have been significantly lower than before and shipments have declined year-on-year for eight consecutive quarters. In the third quarter of 2023, shipments fell by 22% compared to the same period in 2021. However, even in the face of a sluggish market and declining sales, Lenovo can still be considered a strong contender. Not only has it maintained the top global sales for 5 consecutive years, but its shipment volume has also surpassed the second-place HP by more than ten million units.
How did this Chinese company manage to stay at the top and dominate the global market? Let's go back to 1984, in a small reception office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, Liu Chuanzhi and dozens of technical personnel used Lenovo-style Chinese cards with associative functions,which also gave rise to the name "Lenovo". The subsequent launches of products including personal computers and servers were also popular. In 1996, Lenovo took the lead in the domestic computer market. But Lenovo wants more association than just a screen, its real ambition lies in the "association" with the global market.
In 2005, Lenovo Group acquired IBM's personal computer business unit through mergers and acquisitions, making Lenovo's global market share in the PC industry rise from ninth to third. Its sales increased from less than 3 billion US dollars at the beginning to nearly 20 billion US dollars in five years, a growth of over sixfold. Today, Lenovo consistently ranks among the Top 3 globalized brands in China with most of its revenue coming from overseas markets.
Although Lenovo is at the top of the global market, this PC giant also faces its growth challenges. For the past 2 years, due to the impact of PC shipments decline all over the world, Lenovo's revenue and net profit have dropped significantly. According to its latest financial data, Lenovo's 23/24 mid-year operating income was 27.31 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 20%. In the face of this predicament, Lenovo is trying to find a way out.
Liu Chuanzhi was asked this question once: "Does Lenovo want to grow bigger or stronger in the future?" Liu Chuanzhi replied, "Let's grow bigger."
Lenovo has been practicing this philosophy over the years, trying to expand its business scope as much as possible. In 2022, Lenovo conducted business restructuring. In addition to its original core smart device business, it has added infrastructure solutions and SSG solution services to its business line and achieved rapid development. Lenovo Group's first-quarter data for fiscal year 2023/24 showed that its storage business in the ISG business line registered a growth of 120%, ranking fourth in the global market share. The high-performance server business achieved a growth of 45%.
In addition, Lenovo's actions always speak louder than its words with continuing efforts in science and technology innovation. On October 24th of this year, at the Tech World Conference, Lenovo exploratively launched AI PC and also announced that it will cooperate with NVIDIA. To launch a new hybrid artificial intelligence program, allowing AI to cover various industries.
In August of this year, Lenovo Group CEO Yang Yuanqing announced that it would add more than 7 billion yuan in the next three years to invest in the R&D innovation of AI infrastructure. As the leader of the PC industry, when the whole industry bottoms out, Lenovo still maintains its original creativity, adhering to the actual needs of the times and the market and envisioning a new "Lenovo" for the future.
出品：南财国际传播中心 21新媒体中心 创意互动中心
策划统筹：于晓娜 丁青云
内容统筹：谭婷
责任编辑：李香香
执行统筹：黄欣然
设计统筹：林军明
视频统筹：白宇航
监制：施诗
英文翻译：李莹亮
英文配音：黄子豪
海外运营监制: 黄燕淑
海外运营内容统筹: 黄子豪
运营支持：曾静娇
审校：魏雯静 黄志明 陈晶晶
